Category: Living the Resurrection Life

In the third chapter of his letter to the Philippians, the apostle Paul writes, “…that I may know Jesus and the power of His resurrection” (Phil 3:10).  Have you ever wondered what that power is all about?  What power is Paul referring to?

Last time we were together, I wrote about the Resurrected Life; the theology of Christ living His resurrected life in us.  Today we turn to the power associated with that Life.

Peter writes, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.  For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust” (II Pet 1:2-4).

When you embraced the gospel message of Jesus Christ, God gave to you a divine nature; sometimes referred to in Scripture as “the righteousness of Christ.”  But did you know that this nature also brought with it “His divine power”?  I don’t pretend to even know how to unpack the whole picture of this, but by God’s truth in His Word, His divine power (can we say supernatural power?) lives inside each of us as part of His divine nature indwelling us.

And one of the primary ways we experience the divine power is in our conflict with sin.  The end of our passage above highlights that His divine nature empowers us “to escape the corruption that is in the world by lust.”  That is a good description of sin; a lustful corruption that is typical of the world and the world system.  But God in His generosity has given us a way of escape from this corruption; this power of sin.

We often hear the phrase, “God will provide a way of escape when we are tempted.”  But we don’t talk much about the “how”.  Am I just supposed to buck up and face the challenge with an increased will power?  Am I to try to quickly plant something positive in my mind in place of the temptation that is facing me head on?  Is there some “path of escape” to avoid this temptation that I need to discover?

I believe the “how” is to recognize who we are in Christ; redeemed sinners who now possess a divine nature in which sin is no longer our master.  Our old nature has been replaced.  Our old man has been replaced.  Our old heart has been replaced.  And your new nature, your new man, your new heart are powered by the resurrection life of Jesus living in you.  And this power is available to us, to bring to bear on those pesky temptations.  It is a power we are to believe, embrace, and walk in, in our hour of temptation.

While this power is always available, it is not automatically in force like some supernatural power of a comic book hero.  No, there is a path to us acknowledging this power, appropriating this power, and experiencing this power.  In its most succinct form, the path to victory is the path of faith.  To bring the promise of this power into our experience, we must believe “His precious and magnificent promises”; one of which is that we have been set free from sin’s power.

So celebrate, and reflect on, the two astonishing miracles of Resurrection Sunday.  Miracle one;  Christ was raised from the dead.  A completely dead body came back to life.  This miracle sealed Jesus’ identity as the Son of God and thus sealed our salvation.  “Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:4).

Miracle two is that this same Christ who was raised from the dead now lives in you, and you in Him (Col 3:3-4, and about two hundred other places in the New Testament).  And in some ways, Christ living His life in us is just as astonishing as miracle one.

These two miracles come together in us when we long with the apostle Paul to “know Him and the power of His resurrection.”  May you experience that power today.  And give thanks to our Living Lord that we have this opportunity to pursue His life in us every day; a powerful Easter dawning in us over and over and over.

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me’ ” (Jn 14:6).  In this one verse, we have a beautiful summary to the message of John’s gospel.  Jesus said that He is the only way to God, His message is truth, and the reward for believing this is life eternal and abundant.

That Jesus is the only way to the Father is a theme throughout John’s gospel.  In the middle chapters of the book, Jesus specifically reiterated this point over and over with various word pictures and direct instruction.  In fact, the firmness with which Jesus identified Himself as the Christ, the Son of God, the only true path to life made such an impression on me that I wrote a book about it.  Is Jesus the Only Way? is a verse-by-verse look at what Jesus claimed about Himself as the only way.

Another feature of John’s gospel is his focus on the truth.  Quotes like, “I am the truth”, “You will know the truth”, “Full of grace and truth”, “He who practices the truth”, “Worship the Father in spirit and truth”, “There is no truth in him [the devil]”, “I speak the truth”, “When the Spirit of truth comes”, “Sanctify them in the truth”, “Your word is truth”, “The truth will make you free”, and finally, “What is truth?” asked by Pilate.

John makes clear that Jesus’s message should be believed because it is true.  There is no social agenda, no political agenda, not even a theological agenda in Jesus’ words or John’s writing.  The appeal is always to the truth and to the idea that we should believe and embrace the gospel message of Jesus Christ because it is true.

And finally, Jesus is the life; the perfect conclusion to this triplet in John 14:6.  If you believe the truth about Jesus, about Jesus’s identity as the Son of God, about Jesus being the only way to God, you will inherit life itself.  This message is so straightforward and one that we have heard over and over in John’s gospel.  Because it really is the good news, the message of the gospel.

If the idea of believing the gospel message of Jesus is new to you, let me close with this offer.  When Jesus came to earth, He initiated a new arrangement between God and man.  His message of release from the penalty of our sin was totally founded upon His death, as a substitute for each of us, on a cross.  Under God’s old arrangement, the default arrangement for the whole human race, we stand guilty of breaking His moral code.  But that all goes by the wayside when we agree to God’s new arrangement by acknowledging our guilt, accepting the free gift of Christ’s death in our place, and believing what Jesus says is true.  If you wish to say “I’m in” with this new arrangement, tell God in prayer about your decision.  Then, talk to someone about it.  If you would like to know more about God’s offer or talk with us about a decision you’ve made, drop us a line at jrlehman@att.net.

“Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me shall live even if he dies’ ” (Jn 11:25).  Jesus is the resurrection and the life.  I like to put these two terms together and call the life Jesus promised His believers “resurrection life”.  Resurrection life has a longevity (eternal) and a quality (abundant) based on the promises of God.

Resurrection life delivers a promise about our past – we have been set free from the penalty of sin.  Resurrection life holds a promise about our future – life with Jesus forever because our sins are forgiven.  And resurrection life delivers a promise about our present – freedom from the power of sin in our walk today.

Let us focus for a minute on the present promise.  The apostles, over and over, emphasize that our daily walk in the Christian life is empowered by the resurrection life of Christ living inside us.  To develop that theme, let’s take a quick tour through the book of Romans as one example to see what the resurrection of Christ accomplished in us.

First, as the foundation for our faith, the resurrection sealed Jesus’ identity as the Christ, the Son of God.  “…His Son was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and was declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead” (Rom 1:3-4).  Jesus’ resurrection from the dead declared with power that He is who He said He is, Christ, the Son of God.

“For our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification” (Rom 4:24-25).  The word “reckoned” used in this passage is an accounting term.  On the basis of Christ’s resurrection we can go to the ledger and put ourselves in the justified column; declared righteous and the penalty for our transgressions taken away.  “He was raised for our justification.”

But wait, there’s more.  “We have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin” (Rom 6:4-7).

This “newness of life” that we are to walk in is literally the resurrected life of Christ (“in the likeness of His resurrection”) living itself out in us.  And one of the beautiful outcomes of Christ living His resurrected life in us is that “we are no longer slaves to sin”.  We have been set free from sin’s power.  But how do we tap into this resurrected life and experience its power?

“However you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, since indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.  But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.  And since Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.  But since the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you” (Rom 8:9-11).

The Spirit of God who raised Christ from the dead dwells inside you.  It could not be more clear.  Twice in verse 11 alone, Paul refers to the Christ’s resurrection life living in you by the presence of His Holy Spirit.  This is the promise of a life set free from sin’s power.  It is fueled, it is energized by the Holy Spirit living in you.

And all of this is true because Christ is raised from the dead.  The apostles, in their early sermons in the first few chapters of the book of Acts, consistently proclaimed Christ’s resurrection.  The empty tomb is a powerful point of apologetics as we defend our faith and defend the identity of Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God.  But the resurrection was so much more.  It sealed your past; forgiveness and the penalty for your sins taken away.  It sealed your future; an eternity in the presence of Jesus.  And it has a promise for your present; a life set free from sin’s power.

One of the words the apostle John uses over and over in his gospel is the word “life”.  From beginning to end, the life imparted to us by Jesus Christ – life eternal and abundant – is a constant theme in his book.  Here are just a few of those references to introduce us to John’s development of this topic.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (Jn 1:1,4).  Jesus and the life He imparts was there from the beginning.

“He who believes in the Son has eternal life” (Jn 3:36).  A pretty straightforward if-then regarding belief and eternal life.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (Jn 5:24).  Believe and we literally cross over from death to life!

“Jesus said to them, ‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst’ ” (Jn 6:35).  I wonder what this “never hungry, never thirsty” promise is all about.

“For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day” (Jn 6:40).  It is not God’s wish, it is not God’s hope that those who believe in Jesus attain eternal life.  No, it is God’s will, God’s determined plan that eternal life is the promise for those who believe in Jesus.